Strapped To The Wheels
by A Damned Scientist
Summary: Aeryn discovers roller skating, John does not entirely approve. Never argue with a woman, especially Aeryn.


**Strapped to the Wheels (G)**

**Setting and Spoilers:** Future fic/comic filler

**Warnings and genre:** None, all very tame. Romantic comedy. So Syrupy shippiness warning, I guess.

**Thanks**: To pdsldl for an overnight beta read.

**Word Count:** 847

**Disclaimer**: Not for profit, not mine. Aeryn "owns" it all this time out.

It had all started, John decided, when Aeryn had gone through a box of things that she had brought from Erp but had not looked at since. She had found a gift, which apparently had been sent to her by some Australian actress who was a big fan of Aeryn's. Over the ensuing weeks, her obsession with the present from Erp had grown and grown, along with her skating skills. After a few weekens, she was spending arns at a time shooting around the golden corridors of Moya, frequently reducing Sikozu and Noranti to nervous wrecks and causing who-knew-what mental trauma to the DRDs. And, in John's opinion, she was also on the verge of neglecting her duties to Moya, to say nothing of Deke and, of course, her husband. So, wisely or not, he called her on it.

"Aeryn, this in-line-skating hobby of yours…" he began nervously over second meal, slipping another spoon full of brown mush into Deke's eager mouth. John was sufficiently distracted by Aeryn that he did not notice the food oozing straight back out and down the toddler's chin.

Aeryn skated over to sit opposite them, as graceful as if she had been born on wheels, with a plate of nutritional supplements in one hand, an energy drink in the other. "Um hmm?" she replied, her expression pensive and serious.

"You know sometimes it's possible to take things a little….."

"Hmm?"

"A little….?"

"Yes?"

"Well, you know…?"

"No, actually, I do not know. What are you going on about, John?"

"Well, sometimes you can take things a little too seriously?"

"What do you mean, John?" she frowned in incomprehension. She looked so cute when she did that that John had to distract himself by feeding Deke more mush.

"Well, you do seem to be spending an awful lot of time skating," he explained, trying to play it down a little and not meet her gaze.

She considered this for a few microts. "Actually, John, I think it's an excellent way to get around Moya." Well, at least she hadn't gone off in a huff. Or worse.

Little did he suspect what payback she was now planning to extract from him for accusing her of taking things too seriously.

"Well yes, but…" John replied.

"It is fast, efficient, excellent exercise." She paused. "Stealthy." After an even longer pause she added. "And fun. You don't object to me having a little fun, do you, John?"

"Well, err, no, but…" Dren. What a question. How was he going to get out of this?

"Good. In fact, I'd like Deke to start skating, too."

"But he's way too young!" John exclaimed, forgetting how delicate his position was.

"When I was his age…" Aeryn began reciting her normal response to anything related to disagreements about when Deke was old enough to be doing something.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," John interrupted, more than a little unwisely.

"Don't you dare shush me, John," Aeryn fumed, her expression darkening ominously. John flinched. Aeryn went for the kill. "In fact," she declared, "I've decided that it is such a good thing that I want to see a bio-mechanical surgeon. I want to get some bio-implanted wheels. Like those creatures had on Chorlton Two. But smaller, obviously."

John did not remember the planet or the creatures to which she was referring. "Err….?" He floundered.

"It would be much more efficient than having to strap on these boots," John still looked confused. Aeryn pressed her advantage. "I think I should get Deke some wheels implanted, too. The younger he starts the better."

"You cannot mean that!" John exploded, as her words sunk in. Deke's meal was now all but forgotten.

"You don't think it's a good idea?" She asked, fixing him with her most innocent, doe-eyed look. Oh hell, thought John, I am such a goner, hook line and sinker. His worst fears were confirmed when she coyly bit on her bottom lip. "What, don't you think I'd look good with little wheels?" Deke loudly gurgled approval and John spluttered.

John recognized that look very well, and what it implied. When the hezmanna did Miss PK Universe learn to _flirt_, he wondered. Not that it mattered. He grinned and tapped his comms,  
"Noranti, can you come to the central chamber, please?"

"Certainly John," came the disembodied reply. John flicked the comms off.

"Because Mrs Crichton and I need to skate over to our quarters and line up some rolling around time," he growled suggestively at Aeryn, who laughed throatily in reply before pushing her energy drink across the table towards him. She nodded at the drink.

"You'd best drink that then, Ooman. You're going to need it," she finished with a wink. John gulped in mock concern and ostentatiously took the drink. Aeryn laughed again and, shaking her head, switched from speaking Sebacean into speaking in her lispy, accented and, to John, unbearably sexy English. "Oh, you are stho mine, John Cwichton, you wheely, wheely are."

And now, dear reader, I'd best draw a veil and allow Aeryn and John some privacy.

The end.


End file.
